Abstract: A carrying apparatus comprising an endless roller chain belt that moves on a circular track and includes a plurality of fixture plates. Each fixture plate has several interrupted slot lines each of which comprises vertically elongate lower, middle and upper slot sections, and a work holding device formed with a resilient coil section intermediate a fixing section at an upper end and a work holding section at a lower end. The work holding device being engaged with the slot line such that the coil section seats within the middle slot section and the fixing and work holding sections extend respectively through the upper and lower slot sections to hold a workpiece between the holding section and an edge of the fixture plate. The middle slot section being skewed at an inclined angle with the upper and lower slot section having vertical axes parallel to and spaced one from the other.

Abstract: A delivery system for receiving book blocks discharged from a book-sewing machine on a transverse stack conveyor, the book blocks on the transverse stack being supported on their front edges and thus being vertically oriented, and rearranging the book blocks so as to be horizontally oriented. The delivery system subsequently reorients the horizontally arranged book blocks and collects the reoriented book blocks into stable stacks.

Abstract: A conveying device is provided for vertically positioning ferromagnetic cans discharged from an upstream unit in a horizontal position. The conveying device includes a first direction changing band for receiving and transporting horizontally disposed ferromagnetic cans discharged from the upstream unit and having a first discharge end for discharging cans in an essentially vertical orientation. A second direction changing band is disposed along side the first direction changing band for transporting cans and has a second discharge end for discharging cans in an essentially vertical orientation. A transfer device transfers a portion of the horizontally disposed ferromagnetic cans to the second direction changing band. An upright can carrying band is disposed beneath the first and second discharge ends of the first and second direction changing bands for receiving the essentially vertically oriented cans.

Abstract: An apparatus for doffing textile bobbin tubes from tube support members having posts projecting therefrom for supporting tubes thereon as the tube support members are conveyed along a transport path by a transport device with the tube support members being slidably supported on the transport device to allow stoppage of a tube support member as a tube is doffed without deactivating the transport device is disclosed. The tube doffing apparatus comprises a pair of opposed tube engaging and doffing devices having tube engaging surfaces which may be conveyor belts with guide and support rollers straddling the path of posts of support members traveling along the transport path and extending away from the transport path in the general direction of projection of the support member posts. These devices are disposed for engaging a tube on a post of a support member supported on the transport path and thereby stopping the support member while removing the tube from the post.

Abstract: A sheet material handling apparatus includes a container handling assembly which is operable to sequentially position containers at an unloading station. An unloader assembly is operable to remove stacks of sheet material from containers at the unloading station. The unloader assembly includes a lift assembly which is operable to engage a stack of sheet material disposed in a container and to lift the stack of sheet material upwardly through an open lower end portion of an upright hopper. Once the stack of sheet material has been moved into the hopper, the hopper and the stack of sheet material are moved to a tilted orientation. As the hopper moves to the tilted orientation, the hopper moves the stack of sheet material along an upwardly inclined ramp into engagement with a sheet material feed assembly. The sheet material feed assembly sequentially feeds sheet material from the lower end portion of the tilted stack of sheet material.

Abstract: A roller assembly for bending sheets of glass, including a plurality of units each comprising a plurality of rollers mounted on support shafts. The support shafts pivot, which tilts the rollers, so that the surface of each roller is tangent to the bottom of the bent glass sheet.

Abstract: A method and device for successively conveying flat-shaped items, i.e. slab-like items, such as sweets or biscuits, for the formation of groups consisting of a number of items positioned on edge; and whereby the aforementioned items, laid flat, are fed successively on a conveyor to the input of a curved channel extending downwards over an arc of substantially 90.degree., and along which the items drop in contact with one another. At the output of the curved channel, the items, positioned on edge, are maintained in this position and fed successively and separately to a user device inside respective compartments of a conveyor defined by two tangent, counter-rotating screws.

Abstract: A yarn package transferring apparatus having a slide for sliding yarn packages thereon from a yarn processing machine and a vertical endless belt assembly for raising the packages from the bottom of the slide to a conveyor which carries the packages for delivering to a location for further handling. The slide has an apparatus for orienting a predetermined leading or trailing end of the packages entering the slide for sliding thereon and a recess adjacent its lower end for uniformly positioning the packages for receipt by the vertical endless belt. A plurality of inclined platforms regularly spaced along the vertical endless belt translationally carry the packages to a package stripper which removes the supported packages from the platforms and loads the packages onto the conveyor.

Abstract: The process of conveying a transport platform to a lifting table of a stacking station where panels are stacked on the transport platform after the transport platform has been positioned horizontally on the lifting table. For a simple quick transfer an empty transport platform is positioned adjacent the lifting table in a normal position vertical or inclined to vertical and is put on the lifting table located in the receiving position by tipping into one horizontal position. A displacing device can be provided for moving the transport platform in the one horizontal position to another horizontal position in which the panels are received.

Abstract: A comprehensive container inspection system includes axial container examining features, side wall inspection features and a controllable diverter for routing the containers to one of at least two sorting paths. Each stage of the inspection system is adapted to process moving containers, a continuous line of moving containers being processed and controllably diverted without stoppages. In an axial inspection area, containers are carried through rim, energy absorption and base inspection areas by means of side rollers bridging a gap in endless belt conveyor sections. In a side wall inspection area, containers are continuously rolled before a video detector operable to record and analyze images including at least three of the rolling bottles.

Abstract: Lithographic plates (S) are transported from an input chute (2) onto which they are released from an overhead conveyor (1) to an outlet (20) at a lower level by a rotary shelf device (10) in which a series of plate trays (16) travel with endless chains (13, 13'). The lithographic plates are fed onto successive plate trays (16) by a belt conveyor (4) onto which the plates are directed from the chute (2). The plate trays (16) are upwardly inclined away from the chains (13, 13') during the downward movement of the trays from a position adjacent the belt conveyor (4) to the outlet (20).

Abstract: A harness-receiving apparatus for receiving an electrical harness comprising electrical wires connected at respective ends thereof to electrical connectors and fed from a harness-making machine (HMM) comprises: a first carrier rail positioned with respect to the harness-naking machine (HMM) for receiving one of the connectors for movement therealong while the other of the connectors hangs down during movement of the harness along the first carrier rail; a second carrier rail at an outer end of the first carrier rail and being directed downwardly with respect to the first carrier rail so that the one connector is transferred from the first carrier rail to the second carrier rail while the other connector continues to hang down during the movement of the one connector and the harness along the second carrier rail; and a harness-receiving member positioned below the second carrier rail for receiving the harness from the second carrier rail and arranging the harness in the direction of the second carrier rail.

Abstract: An apparatus for separating a food product from a tray having apertures defining a supporting lattice to which the food product is adhered. A conveyor belt carries the tray in an inverted position with the food product on the bottom and engaging the upper surface of the belt. The undersurface of the belt is slidably supported by a first row of fixed, transversely spaced apart supports. A first row of roller bands with radially directed fingers is located above the belt with the roller bands midway between the supports. The fingers project through the tray apertures and move the product away from the tray and toward the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt sags between the supports, providing room for the product to move for separation from the tray.

Abstract: The apparatus is for changing the posture of green extruded bodies which have been shaped into predetermined configuration. The apparatus includes a rotatable first table for receiving and supporting the green extruded body in an extruded posture, a rotatable second table for receiving the extruded body in a standing posture from the first table, and a mechanism for rotating the first and second tables while maintaining them perpendicular to each other during the transfer operation.

Abstract: An apparatus for handling shaped food products such as a taco shell at the end of a cooking zone of a cooking apparatus includes a guide ramp for controlling the movement and orientation of the shaped and cooked shell as it is discharged from the cooking zone to a take away conveyor whereby nesting of the shaped shells on the take away conveyor will be made possible by preventing random orienting or falling of the shaped and cooked shell on the take away conveyor.

Abstract: A baking oven embodying the method of this invention comprises a plurality of vertically stacked, vertically spaced heated baking plates. Every other one of the baking plates is periodically shifted from a horizontal baking position to an inclined discharge position wherein the disc of dough slides off the respective baking plate and falls toward the next lower baking plate. During its fall, the dough disc is engaged by an inverting apparatus which deposits it on the next lower baking plate in inverted relationship, so that both sides of the dough disc are successively exposed to the heat of the baking plate as the disc traverses downwardly through the stack of plates.

Abstract: The tubular body is laid in a horizontal position on a tapered suction drum and pivoted thereby into a vertical axis which is in coaxial relationship with the axis of a mandrel with a punch. The tubular body is then pushed from the surface of the suction drum on to the mandrel by a thrust member. The mandrel and/or the die is mounted displaceably in a vertical direction, which permits particularly stable and precise guidance. A plurality of dies with mandrels and punches associated therewith is disposed on a rotary member. In the course of a revolution of the rotary member, the tubular body on the mandrel is connected to a squeeze moulding in the die.

Abstract: An apparatus for transporting cartridges for exposed photographic roll films to an opening station has a downwardly sloping duct whose inlet can receive the shells of successive cartridges only in a predetermined orientation. The lower end of an inserted container or cartridge comes to rest on a first gate and the gate is retracted from the duct so as to permit gravitational descent of the inserted cartridge only if the orientation of the inserted cartridge is proper. The cartridge which descends below the retracted first gate impinges upon a cylindrical bolt which tilts the cartridge approximately 90 degrees so that the axis of the shell of such tilted cartridge is substantially horizontal before the cartridge descends onto a second retractible gate and thereupon onto a third gate in the bottom of the duct. The inclination of the duct with reference to a horizontal plane is at least 45 degrees.

Abstract: Device for unloading textile coils from a coil conveyor provided with take-up mandrels, the textile coils having coil tubes by which the coils are stuck onto the take-up mandrels, includes at an unloading station of the coil conveyor, a fork pivotable about a pivot shaft in a plane perpendicular to the axis of a take-up mandrel thereat and a textile coil stuck thereon for gripping under the lower end of at least one of the coil and the coil tube and supporting the coil tube, the fork being connected to a counterbearing disposed above the textile coil and pivotable in the same rotational sense as the fork, a lifting device connected to the pivot shaft of the fork for lifting the textile coil, a deflector wall located adjacent the coil conveyor, the fork being pivotable with the lifted textile coil and, with upper parts of the textile coil disposed against the counterbearing, until the fork is beneath the deflector wall and the textile coil comes into contact with the deflector wall, the textile coil being slid

Abstract: An orientation device for properly orienting nuclear fuel rod end plugs (18) in their proper mode for ultimate use and processing includes a funnel (12) the inside diameter (d) of which is greater than the diameter (D) of each end plug (18), and the diameter (D) of each plug (18) is greater than the length (L) of each plug. The plugs (18) are permitted to pass through the funnel bore (30), however, only when the longitudinal axis of each plug is coaxial with the longitudinal axis of the funnel bore (30) because the diagonal dimension (DG) of each plug as defined between any point on the plug's upper peripheral surface (26) and a point disposed diametrically opposite the first point upon the lower peripheral surface (28) is greater than the diameter (d) of the funnel bore.

Abstract: A yeast cake device for reorienting yeast cakes by a tumbling operation has a single reciprocating part. The reciprocating part is a reciprocating ram having an upper arm and a lower arm. The upper arm serves to push articles to be tumbled across a first shelf. The tumbling occurs from the first half and onto the lower arm of the reciprocating ram. Upon retraction during a backstroke of the reciprocating ram, the article supported by the lower arm brings the article into engagement with the first shelf such that the article remains stationary while the lower arm moves beneath the article. During retraction, the center of gravity of the article lies beyond a free edge of the lower arm such that the article tumbles for a second time through a 90 degree revolution and onto a second shelf. During another stroke, the lower arm again engages the article so as to push the article onto a conveyor belt.

Abstract: Apparatus is disclosed for feeding singled can lids from a conveyor to a spreader magnet buffer magazine, the can lids being made of magnetic material. The conveyor has an end roller made of magnetic material, the end roller being positioned adjacent to the magazine. Curved tracks are provided between the end roller and the magazine, the tracks serving to control the direction of movement of the can lids as they move from the end roller into the magazine.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for minimizing the work required for moving, handling, and rolling heavy boxes and the like having a center of gravity. The apparatus incorporates a ramp contoured to the locus of points described by the surfaces of the workpiece as that workpiece rotates about its center of gravity, as that center of gravity is horizontally translated while simultaneously maintained at constant vertical elevation.

Abstract: A vibration damping nest is adapted for receiving axial lead components deposited upon a conveyor assembly by an automatic grasping and positioning device such as robotic pincers. The conveyor assembly, such as a walking beam, is provided with a plurality of grooves along the length thereof which are aligned perpendicular to the length and direction of displacement of the walking beam and are adapted to receive an elongated, linear electronic component deposited thereon. The vibration damping nest includes a pair of pivoting plates positioned on respective sides of the walking beam immediately adjacent thereto. An upper edge of each of the plates includes a generally V-shaped recessed portion for receiving a respective axial lead of a component. Suspended from each pivoting plate is a biasing weight for urging the plate in a generally vertical orientation wherein the V-shaped upper edge portions of the plates define a component drop position across the walking beam assembly.

Abstract: Merchandise discharged from a packaging machine in a lateral posture can be reliably aligned into a longitudinal posture, and the merchandise can then be sent to a labeling machine with one side of each article in sliding contact with an article-aligning member at all times, irrespective of the size of tray used. This enables the omission of the operations of correcting the posture and position of articles by an operator, and the articles can always be labeled at correct portions thereof, said turn conveyor is so formed that the height of a start end thereof can be regulated to enable the turn conveyor, alignment conveyor, weighing machine and labeling machine to be connected to a packaging machine which has an article discharge section at a height different from that of the turn conveyor or an intermediate conveyor connected to the discharge section of the packaging machine.

Abstract: A board is held in fixed position on a board conveyer, and placed into an upright state with the board conveyer to position the upper or leading edge of the raised board always at a predetermined height.

Abstract: A continuous meat processing line having a patty-forming machine at the inlet end, a cooking portion, a transfer section, a quick freeze section and a packing section at the outlet end. The cooking portion has a first cooking section adjacent to the patty-forming machine and a second cooking section in line with the first cooking section. Each cooking section has a conveyor belt for moving patties through the cooking section. A plurality of heating units are spaced above the conveyor belt in each cooking section and a plurality of individual radiant heaters are located in each heating unit. A water tray is located below each conveyor belt and a drain trough is connected with the water trays.

Abstract: A compact tortilla press and oven unit. The press delivers formed tortillas to the oven wherein they are toasted on a plurality of rotating oven discs. The tortilla is initially received by a first oven disc upon which a first side of the tortilla is partially toasted. Upon completion of one revolution of the first oven disc, the tortilla is removed therefrom by a first scraper. A second rotating oven disc adjacent to and in vertical alignment with the first oven disc receives the tortilla on a second side thereof by means of a slide intermediate to the first and second discs. The slide receives the tortilla upon removal thereof from the first disc and allows the tortilla to turn over and be placed upside down on the adjacent disc. Upon completion of one revolution of the second disc, upon which the second side of the tortilla has been partially toasted, the tortilla is removed therefrom by a second scraper.

Abstract: Sorter slide apparatus for disk jacket combinations that include a slide extended into a bin of a sorter for receiving such combinations as they are discharged into a bin and conveying them to a removable box of a magazine. The disk combinations in being moved to be discharged into a bin have their open rear flaps in advance of the remainder of the jacket, and when discharged fall onto the upper part of the slide to slide downwardly and transversely while the upper slide portion supports them to be inclined downwardly both in longitudinal and transverse directions. The transverse intermediate portion of the slide has edges to cause the combinations to swingingly rotate through an angle of about 90.degree. whereby the opened flap faces toward the bin.

Abstract: Orienting apparatus for elongated finger cookies or other elongated bakery roducts supplied in uniform groups. The finger cookies are supplied to the orienting apparatus in upright conditions and are then laid flat on a packaging conveyor. Usually, the groups of cookies are supplied in two rows in side by side relation relative to each other with groups in each row of uniform count and conveyed along drop gate members in upright positions to a dropping station, where the drop gate members are swung from supporting engagement with a group of cookies conveyed and accommodate the group of cookies to drop through a drop chute assembly in their upright positions and then are turned at 90.degree. and laid onto a conveyor plate along which the oriented groups of cookies are conveyed in a flat condition to a loading station for packaging or wrapping.

Abstract: An assembly for use in a container lid conveyor apparatus serves to transfer container lids disposed on a generally horizontal conveyor, to disposition in a continuous stack of such lids balanced on their rims, and undergoing continuous rotation during the operation of the apparatus. This transfer is accomplished at speeds of up to 300 units per minute by an assembly comprising a chute having an upper and a lower vertical slideway, and an intermediate slideway inclined simultaneously forward and sidewise at acute angles with respect to the vertical, to guide the container lids forward to the stack. Side walls are associated with the chute along at least a portion of its lateral periphery, and a movable wall is disposed at the lower lateral periphery of the chute, in cooperative disposition with the side walls, to assist in guiding the descending container lids, and imparting a surface rotation to the lids that prepares them for reception by the spinning rods associated with the stack.

Abstract: The present invention concerns stacking of shingles, in particular shingles having one edge portion thicker than the other edge portion. Such shingles require that at least some of the shingles in a stack be oriented to place the thicker edge thereof opposite the thicker edge of the other shingles in the stack to form a neat and easily packaged stack of shingles. Such a stack of shingles must be formed quickly and accurately in order to keep up with the high rate of shingle production. The present invention accomplishes this by permitting selected shingles to be dropped and simultaneously rotated about a longitudinal axis as the shingles drop from one star wheel catcher (20) to another star wheel catcher (30). This rotation takes place by applying a substantial moment to the shingle as it falls by interposing specially shaped flipping fingers (46) in the path of the shingle.

Abstract: A pallet elevator for a ship includes symmetrical carrier trays and symmetrical followers, each follower being pivotally mounted at its center on a tray-carrying chain. A pair of follower rollers are symmetrically mounted on each follower, one roller of the pair being mounted at each end thereof. The center line of each carrier tray is coincident with the center of each of its respective followers and the center plane of the tray is perpendicular to a line joining the centers of the follower rollers. The follower rollers are guided by a guide track which comprises a single race adjacent the load-carrying flight of the chain and a pair of parallel races adjacent the return flight of the chain. The track further comprises a pair of outer cam tracks for guiding the rollers adjacent the sprockets around which the chains pass. The outer cam tracks merge the single race and the parallel races along generally arcuate paths.

Abstract: A system including method and apparatus for conveying and orientating tie plates for use with a railway track renewal or construction machine designed to run along a railway track. The system provides a delivery of tie plates to mechanisms for positioning and laying the plates on new or reconditioned ties adjacent both ends of each tie with the field side of the tie plate facing outwardly. A first longitudinally directed power driven conveyor is located centrally with its inlet end in a gondola car used to store the tie plates. This conveyor is divided along its longitudinal center by a wall to provide a means for conveying two adjacent lines of tie plates. The tie plates are introduced to this first conveyor on both sides of the dividing wall with the plates facing upward and the field end of the plates facing forward. A pair of second longitudinally directed power driven conveyors are located on the track working machine downstream of and outwardly from the first conveyor and at a lower level.

Abstract: Apparatus for positioning prismatic bricks comprising a supporting face for bricks which are supplied pairwise parallel to each other and resting upon one of the large surfaces, and a pusher member above said supporting surface, pushing them from an edge thereof and with at least one pair of longitudinal supporting members protruding from said edge in the direction of travel of the bricks and excentrical with respect to the center lines of the paths of travel.

Abstract: An apparatus for charging tall, narrow receptacles with small, plate-like items of like size and shape. The apparatus has at least one counting and charging unit having a plurality of axially aligned counting wheels having a plurality of pockets along their periphery for receiving individual items and a funnel arranged underneath the counting wheels for receiving items discharged by the counting wheels and for directing them into a receptacle arranged below the funnel. There are further provided a plurality of orienting channels arranged between the funnel and each counting wheel. Each orienting channel is arranged to receive items from the associated counting wheel and to orient the items such that upon discharge of each item from the orienting channels into the funnel, the main plane of each item is parallel to the main plane of the receptacle situated underneath the funnel.

Abstract: Apparatus for conveying rod-like articles includes a conveyor particularly adapted for moving a stream of articles in stack formation around a curved path of small radius. The conveyor includes an endless conveyor carrying cantilevered slats and guided around a double curved path on the upper run of which the outer ends of the slats are elevated by a guide. On the curved path the outer side of the stream is elevated and moved at an increased speed by the slats. The conveyor may be used to turn articles in the stream through 180.degree. prior to merging with another stream and is, therefore, usable in a "tip turner38 for attachment to a filter cigarette making machine.

Abstract: Apparatus for arraying randomly distributed ampoules, bottles or like objects has a longitudinally grooved vibratory conveyor which receives randomly distributed objects from a magazine and converts the objects into files of aligned objects. The discharge end of the vibratory conveyor, or an intermediate conveyor, delivers the objects into a vertical duct having several longitudinally extending sections one of which is adjustable horizontally toward or away from the other section or sections to define a passage of optimum width for the selected objects. The lower end of the duct delivers successive objects onto a platform, and such objects are transferred sideways out of register with the duct by a reciprocable pusher. If the objects are bottles or the like, an orienting device is placed adjacent to the upper end of the duct to insure that the orientation of each bottle which enters the duct is the same.

Abstract: For a newspaper mail room having a closed-loop track and an endless cart train whose carts are adapted to carry a pair of newspaper bundles for delivery to the exit end of the system, an exit conveyor system is provided which includes a first bundle-spacing section comprising a power-driven roller conveyor disposed parallel to the cart-train track and having drag means for effecting desired spacing between individual bundles, followed by a second bundle-turning section comprising a power-driven off-center belt conveyor parallel to the cart-train track for applying forward pull to the undersurface of only a portion of a received bundle for rotating the bundle about its vertical axis into an angular orientation for delivery into the 90.degree. bend of a gravity exit chute which extends at right angles to the cart-train track.

Abstract: Strip sections holding securing elements such as nails or screws are stacked, for example, in cartons so that the nail heads or screw heads come to rest in alternate opposite directions. For this purpose the strips slide down an inclined guide chute in a given direction until the heads are held by support elements which are movable alternately and laterally outwardly substantially at right angles to said given direction. Thus, one support element still supports the heads while the other support is withdrawn from the holding position whereby the strips, as they fall downwardly, rotate alternately, through an angle of 90.degree. whereupon the strips are intercepted, for example, by a tiltable chute.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for orienting a plate such as a seed plate in an electrolytic refining plant. While the plate is in a horizontal attitude and connected with a suspending lug which in turn is connected to a supporting rod, the plate is transported by a manufacturing line conveyer to a predetermined location where there is lowered into engagement with the plate a suction structure capable of holding and carrying the plate. The suction structure together with the plate and the supporting rod and suspension lug are raised away from the manufacturing line conveyer to a transfer location where the plate is capable of swinging to an upright attitude while clearing the above conveyer. At the transfer location the suction action of the suction structure is released, and a pair of rod-supporting members are displaced into engagement with opposed ends of the rod to support the latter when the plate is released to swing to its upright attitude, by gravity.

Abstract: In making electrically asymmetrical semiconductor devices, it is generally necessary to orient all of the devices into a common polarity at some point in the manufacturing operation. To accomplish this, a magnetic turning chute receives those devices which do not have the desired common polarity and turns them into the common polarity. A helical magnetic field is established in the turning chute by arranging strip magnets into vertical helices around a cylinder. As the devices, which have magnetic properties, progress through the helical field, they are turned by the magnetic force. Further turning impetus is provided by nonmagnetic helical tracks disposed to coincide with the helical magnetic field so that the leads of the devices can slide along the tracks while they move through the chute. Air jets may be used to assist in forcing the devices through the apparatus.

Abstract: A sandwich making machine for automatically making sandwiches having filling material located between the two cookie halves. The machine comprises a dividing mechanism for receiving rows of cookie halves and for automatically directing alternate rows of cookie halves to a top conveyor and a bottom conveyor. The bottom conveyor is positioned below the divider mechanism and the top conveyor is positioned adjacent the divider mechanism. A cookie aligning mechanism comprising a deadplate and a pusher bar is positioned adjacent the bottom conveyor and under the top conveyor to receive cookie halves and feed the cookie halves in aligned rows onto the bottom conveyor. A filling applicator is located above the bottom conveyor and in the path of travel of the bottom conveyor for applying filling to rows of cookie halves carried by the bottom conveyor. The top conveyor transports alternate rows of cookie halves and deposits the cookie halves at a sandwich location downstream from the filling applicator.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controllably dispensing upright bottles onto a continuous conveyor is provided wherein the bottles are supplied from a duct and there is provided at least two opposed pivotal members each of the pivotal members carrying bottle supporting surfaces at an upper portion and complementary bottle stabilizing and restraining nest defining portions at a lower portion of the pivotal members, the method includes pivotally moving the members so that the supporting surfaces move in an upper path which includes a bottle supporting position and a non-supporting position and the complementary bottle stabilizing and restraining nest defining portions move in a lower path which includes a bottle stabilizing and restraining nest forming position and a bottle release position, supplying an upright bottle from above the supporting surfaces, supporting the bottle on said supporting surfaces when the surfaces are in one location in the upper path, releasing the bottle downwardly when said surfaces are in

Abstract: A series of articulated product gripper mechanisms are mounted on a continuously operating pickup conveyor having a reach adjacent the product transfer zone of a continuously operating transport conveyor that has cold plates running through a freezing tunnel. The gripper mechanisms are employed to transfer frozen confections such as ice cream bars, ice cream cones, ice cream cups, and stickless or stick novelties from the transport conveyor cold plates to the pickup conveyor. Each gripper mechanism includes replaceable gripping tongs or fingers appropriate to the particular type of confection being handled, and is operable to pick up the moving confection, invert and dip the confection in a coating bath and in a dry confection applicator, and release the coated confection in predetermined orientation onto the inlet conveyor of an associated wrapping machine.